Southern Sudan: At the birth of a new nation, a leader forgives

Southern Sudan's president yesterday offered a prayer of forgiveness for northern Sudan and the killings that occurred during a two-decade civil war, as the first results from a week-long independence referendum showed an overwhelming vote for secession.

Exhausted poll workers who counted ballots overnight and deep into yesterday morning posted returns at individual stations, and an independent count of a small sample showed a 96 per cent vote for secession.

Sudan's south ended its independence vote on Saturday, a vote which will split Africa's largest country in two at the divide between Sudan's Muslim north and Christian and animist south. The two sides ended a more than two-decade civil war in 2005 in a peace deal that provided for last week's vote on independence.

At a church yesterday Southern Sudan president Salva Kiir said: "For our deceased brothers and sisters, particularly those who have fallen during the time of the struggle, may God bless them with eternal peace."